


Healing Wounds, Healing Hearts

by Ackermission



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: A little angst, Caring, Ereri Secret Santa 2017, Feels, Fluff, M/M, New Lovers, canonverse, cute awkward love, ereri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 13:39:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13765308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ackermission/pseuds/Ackermission
Summary: Levi's ill horse is nursed to health by an equally (if not more) stubborn cadet, who may or may not be a little in love with the man.





	Healing Wounds, Healing Hearts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vittarius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vittarius/gifts).



> Just realized how empty and useless this ao3 of mine is *facepalms*  
> I originally wrote this on tumblr as a secret santa 2k17 gift for the amazingly talented Vittarius!  
> Anyway, this is my first oneshot, be kind to me.

It was safe to say that Captain Levi had his fair share of worries. Although wrinkles never marred his pale, youthful skin, and his raven hair hadn’t a single grey strand, his mind tended to dwell on stressful subjects. He worried about his young teammates, the commander Hanji’s strategies, how not to repeat his past failures - but most recently, what was ailing his horse. Because ever since his last mission, Weber had been refusing all contact with the other horses, lying on his flank more often than not and shivering. The usually gentle equine got aggressive every time Levi tried to get close and, according to the cadet on stable duty, hadn’t been eating properly either.

So Levi, in typical Levi fashion, let the worries about his horse consume him on the inside without confiding in anyone.

Naturally, everyone noticed.

It was hard not to, considering that the man himself ate less than ever, while the dark circles under his eyes were more pronounced. Everyone noticed, but no one was brave enough to ask.

Meanwhile, Cadets Eren Yeager and Armin Arlert were doing the delightfully mundane (read : boring and smelly) job of mucking out the stables. By now they were experts at multitasking, so as morning melted to afternoon, the stable was clean and gossip duly exchanged. Well, mostly. One horse in particular refused to let Armin enter his stall, snorting and hoofing the ground ferociously as the blond tried to approach. Armin reached a tentative hand to the horse’s face, but it almost bit that limb off. He retreated.

“Eren? Do you remember the last time you.were on stable duty?” “Yeah, why?” the brunet raised an eyebrow, pulling his long hair up in a makeshift ponytail. Armin plopped down on a haystack. “Were any of the horses aggressive? Or spooked?” Eren sat next to him. “Not that I know of. Why? Horse chase you out of its stall?” Armin nodded. Eren stood up. “Which one?”

The moment Eren set foot into the stall, he was violently kicked out by the irate horse. He just lay on the ground, too dazed to get up or even think. “…Did that horse just…?” He mumbled, to which his friend simply nodded and hauled him up. “C’mon, let’s go.” Eren frowned. “No, I’m not leaving until the entire stable is clean.” He picked up the shovel and bucket and pushed his way into the stall, ignoring the godawful screeches the creature was making, and began mucking it out. Armin sighed in resignation and sat on a haystack to wait. There was just no arguing with Eren - the young man was stubborn as a horse.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t much to clean. The horse shrank away from his accidental touches, trying to get as far away from him as the stall would permit. “Hmpf.” Eren mumbled, noting the beast’s skittishness as he shoveled the last of the shit away. “I only kill titans, ya know.” The horse shivered in response. “Wait… What’s that?” He peered at its flank, where a deep ragged gash was (barely) visible. He paused as understanding dawned on him. The horse was injured. That was bad enough on its own, but the swelling around the wound told him that it was infected as well - and no doubt extremely painful.

Eren recognized the handiwork of a titan. Some of them had long, sharp nails, none of them had the slightest sense of personal hygiene. Untreated, the horse wouldn’t survive the week. Eren wasn’t exactly an animal person, and while he was brash and rude, he wasn’t heartless. He was a doctor’s son after all. He knew something about remedies, having accompanied his father whenever his own horse was ill. But what exactly had his father used..? A number of herbs came to mind and he was having a hard time remembering which ones were right…

Time flew as his mind raced to keep up. Before he knew it, it was dawn and he had A Plan.

When it was time to report to stable duty, Eren came armed with a small box of salve, a bottle of water, a roll of clean cloth and his (lack of) natural charm towards animals. He was a man on a mission; he wouldn’t leave the stables until his job was satisfactorily complete. So once his entry was recorded, he straightened up, squared his shoulders, narrowed his eyes to an appropriately heroic expression and marched into the stall.

He was promptly kicked out two seconds later.

Blowing the hair out of his eyes, he glared at the horse. It grinned back (he swears it wasn’t his imagination). “All right, mule. I’m coming in and STAYING PUT.”

Armin, being the good friend that he was, didn’t laugh or try to intervene. He calmly hummed, brushing another horse as loud thuds and louder swearing punctuated the background. But even angels have their limits. After an hour, Armin tossed an apple in Eren’s general direction. “Distract it with food, idiot.” he sighed, moving to another horse. Things were silent for a while, and the blond was grateful for the chance to peacefully think as he worked. That is, until an impressively loud “FUCK!” echoed from Eren’s stall and he hopped out, clutching his steaming foot. “That donkey’s got some fucking nerve, biting my foot like that.” he hissed, leaning against the wall.

Armin put an arm around his friend. “You just charged in and tried to clean it’s wound, didn’t you.” the latter let out an annoyed huff. “So what if I did?” “Has it ever occurred to you,” the blond asked, amused, “to gain a creature’s trust before rubbing a rough cloth all over its already painful injury? Or being gentle?”

Eren blinked.

“So. Big fella, Aren’t you.” Eren began conversationally, sitting as far from the bored horse as the stall permitted. “Us cadets get different horses everytime we have an expedition. I guess I never got you.” He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Or are you an officer’s horse? That would explain a lot, what with that attitude of yours. I wonder who’s the unlucky one?” it snorted softly and he chuckled. “Most of you horses look the same to me. Not that I ever took the time to really look for differences-” he discreetly wet the cloth- “But there is this one horse I know about. His name is Weber, and he belongs to Captain Levi.” as he talked, he approached the suddenly interested horse, and dabbed at the wound as gently as he could wit the cloth. He promptly received a kick to the stomach that sent him rolling back. “SON OF A BITCH! I’m trying to HELP you!”

It neighed softly and nodded at him. Eren rolled his eyes. “Wanna hear more? Fine. Weber is a good horse. He’s brave, fast, agile and would never maim someone who tries to help him. Oi - what are you looking so smug about? You’re just a random, nameless, bad-tempered horse, so cool it. Okay, now what was I saying? Right, about Captain Levi - again, he’s nothing like you -”

Bright light filtered into his senses as Eren blearily opened his eyes. Where was he? He stretched and prickly stuff scratched his skin. He appeared to be sitting on hay in a… stable? No, that couldn’t be right. He wiped the drool off his cheek and looked up. It was morning all right, and the first thing he saw was a horse’s tail and rump getting closer to him by the second. Realization hit him before the shit did and he leaped out of the way just in time. “Way to say good morning, O horse-devil.” he muttered, missing the warmth, softness and lack of horse shit of his own bed. But he was still on a mission, so he surreptitiously picked up the cloth again. “Listen. I talked to you all day yesterday so you better trust me now. This is just water. It won’t hurt much.”

He kept his eyes on the horse, which was backing away slowly. He moved towards it a touch faster, keeping steady while the horse bucked when wet cloth made contact with the wound. “Relax. You’ll die if I don’t treat you.” he petted its back as he worked. Miraculously, Eren managed to get it decently clean without a single kick to the face (although he had to dodge a couple). He was stepping back with a little smile when the horse perked up and stuck its head out of the stall.

Even, brisk footsteps approached them.

In the space of two seconds, Eren dived into the hay, piled it around himself and crouched down, praying to whoever would answer that he wouldn’t be caught. After all, it was 7 AM and against the rules for cadets to be out of the building yet. He’d rather avoid running 20 laps around the training ground, thank you very much.

Captain Levi had the habit of visiting his horse in the mornings, sometimes going for a ride. He always checked to see that Weber was fed and groomed properly. The horse was one of the very few comrades that had lasted with him throughout his time in the Survey Corps, and it pained him to think that he might leave too. So when he saw an eager Weber standing and looking at him, the man smiled in relief. “You recognize me now, Weber?” he asked softly, to which the horse nuzzled the top of his head. He petted the Weber affectionately. “Good. You seem to be recovering.” Simple words, but they were filled with such relief that they soothed the horse in turn.

Levi didn’t linger. After a final petting, he had a quick word with the head groom and left.

Eren, on the other hand, took his own sweet time in emerging from the haystack. He seemed to be almost in shock as he dusted the hay off his clothes with shaking hands, his face red and his eyes wide. “Y-you mean.. You’re Weber?!” he stuttered, awkwardly putting a hand to the back of his neck. “Uh.. I…how?! No, no… I must be dreaming…” he walked to the stable door and came face-to-face with a certain someone with pale skin and shiny black hair. He jumped.

“Mikasa! What are you-?!” he gasped, taking a step back as she and Armin came in. They both looked shocked as they took in his appearance. Mikasa’s expression grew stony and Armin just looked awed. “Who were you with.” she demanded. “Huh?” “Don’t bother lying. I saw that shorty leaving the stables and smiling. You weren’t in your bed this morning. You’re in the stables. In this condition.” she indicated his messed-up hair, flushed face, messy clothes and the hay all over him. “That looks like a post-sex glow to me.”

He took a step back. “Hold up. You think I’m here because… I had sex with Levi?!” his face got even redder, if that was possible. She frowned. “You called him by his name.” “Slip of tongue. Mikasa, he didn’t know I was here! I look like this because I was hiding from him! You have to believe me. I’m here because I fell asleep here last night. I had extra work to do.” She narrowed her eyes at him, debating whether to believe him nor not. Armin put a hand on her arm. “He’s not lying. I was with him yesterday, and Eren stayed in the stables all night. He’s tending to an injured horse.”

She sighed. “Fine. I’m only looking out for you, Eren. But if Captain lays a hand on you, he’s dead.” With that, she handed him some toast and an apple and walked away. Eren looked at Armin. “Well, that complicates things…” Armin whistled. “So. What’s he like in bed?”

Eren covered his face with his hair.  
***

“Alright. You may be Weber, but don’t act all high and mighty.” Eren warned, flicking a rag at the horse. “Just because your master is beautif– I mean - Captain Levi, doesn’t mean I’ll worship the ground you stamp on, okay? And this will definitely hurt. Keep still.” he couldn’t be bothered to feel embarrassed around a horse, so he picked up the box of salve which would draw out the infection from the wound. Messy, but effective. Just to make his point clear, he looked at the horse again sternly before applying a generous amount of salve on the gash. Weber neighed loudly and made to move away. “No. This will sting for now, but you will heal in three days. No pain at all after that.” he said softly, finishing with the application. “See? All done.” he petted its flank. I’m petting Captain Levi’s horse! Is this real or- he sighed as a disgusting stench filled the stall. Yep. it was definitely real. “Whose idea was it to give you extra food anyway.”

Much to Eren’s relief, the salve worked fine and brought out a good deal of pus and other discharge from the wound. It had to be cleaned every few hours. The young man didn’t mind cleaning up, and the horse was much more co-operative now that a constant source of pain had been removed. Two days later, all discharge stopped and the swelling was completely gone. The cut itself was healing well, no longer as deep as it had been. Weber would have the scar for the rest of his life, but it fortunately didn’t hinder the horse’s movements in any way. Eren continued visiting the horse in the evenings, even when he no longer was on stable duty, to see how the horse was healing and talk to him. Captain Levi was a frequent subject of his chatter.

Now that the cut was almost healed, Eren made another paste to keep it from itching. Weber was no longer bad-tempered. He didn’t try to kick or bite Eren when he applied this paste on his wound. “There. Now that you’re almost healed, you can take Captain on his next expedition.” Eren smiled fondly, his eyes soft as they always were when he talked about his Captain. “It’s a good thing I found your injury, huh, Weber? I doubt anyone else knows what herbs to use in such cases. And if no one did, what would happen to you? Captain would be devastated.” he sat down and leaned against the horse. “You and I, we’re the only ones apart from Captain who survived that chase of the Female Titan. I couldn’t save them, but… In a small way, I feel better because I saved you. There’s not much I can do to make him happy, but at least I can do this for him. He means a lot to me.” he sighed and closed his eyes. “Us survivors take care of each other.”

“We do.” a deep voice, soft and familiar, cut through Eren’s content silence. He opened his eyes and scrambled to his feet at once. “Captain!” surprise, disbelief and a deep blush colored his face. “I didn’t know.. I mean, I didn’t see you there!”

Levi, with his thick, dark coat and earmuffs around his neck, wasn’t exactly inconspicuous in the warmly lit stable. But he looked up at Eren almost shyly, faint pink tinging his cheeks. Eren immediately cursed his distasteful choice of words. “I heard you talking. You were the one who cured my horse?” Tongue-tied, Eren could only nod. How much exactly did Levi hear?

Their eyes met for a long moment and then Eren quickly looked away. “So…” he said. “You were..?” Levi asked at the same time. They chuckled awkwardly. “You first.” Levi said. Eren tore his gaze away from the floor, trying to find anything clever to say.

“Earmuffs.. cute” he mumbled. “Uh, thanks.” Levi replied, smiling slightly as the pink on his cheeks became more obvious. “It’s warm here…” he said quietly, raising his eyes to Eren’s. The young man nodded and reached out a hand to Levi’s face, looking absurdly giddy. “M-may I, uh.” Levi raised his eyebrows and waited. Eren’s hand, warm, gentle and a little shaky, cupped Levi’s chin and the older man smiled. “You needed permission for that?” he asked. Eren sensed the challenge and his awkward expression morphed into one of determination. He leaned in. Those dreamy grey eyes twinkled in approval as Levi too leaned towards Eren. This was it, Eren was finally going to kiss the man of his dreams-

“HA!” Mikasa leapt right in front of them, startling the skeletons out of Eren and Levi. Weber neighed sharply and hoofed the ground. Eren glared at Mikasa. “What the fuck -hic- was that -hic- for?!” (yes, she’d scared him so much that he’d started hiccuping.) “I knew you were sneaking out to do it with Captain!” she declared. “I wasn’t!” Eren whined. “He wasn’t.” Levi said simply. Even the horse shook his head.

She threw them all a withering glare. In all honesty, she had been hiding in the stable roof ever since Eren came in and heard and saw everything, but in her mind’s eye, all she could see when she thought of Eren and Levi together was that time, three years ago, when Levi beat and kicked up a defenceless Eren in court. They told her later that it was an act, but Levi could seriously hurt Eren. She didn’t want that to happen.

“Ackerman. I won’t hurt him.” Levi said. He could tell what she was thinking by her murderous expression. She looked at him defiantly. “If I hear any whimper of abuse from him, shorty, I will hunt you down and kill you. Mark my words.” Levi’s expression was serious as he nodded. “You have my permission to do so.” “I don’t need it.” She held her head high. “And you-” she looked at Eren, “tell me if anything happens.” He hiccupped indignantly. She smirked and left.

The brunet wished that the ground would swallow him alive, that’s how embarrassed he was.

“Captain, about her..” Levi put his hand in the crook of Eren’s arm. “She loves you and is worried about us. I don’t blame her.” he said quietly as they walked out of the stable and into the light snowfall. They walked along in silence for a while. “Levi?” the Captain smiled. “Yes, Eren?” “I don’t blame you either. For beating me up in court, I mean. It was either that or letting the Military Police dissect me alive. I understand.”

Levi looked at him for a long moment, his expression unreadable, but his grip on Eren’s arm tightened. “Really?” Eren nodded seriously. “Really.” “Then you’ve given me two gifts already, Eren.”

“Can I give you a third?”

“Mm.”

They kissed.


End file.
